Peo-not

It’s not exactly comforting to make it home after getting caught in a frog-drowner, only to hear the weather guy on the radio saying this was nothing like the tornado-spawning storms of last week. Just your ordinary, run-of-the-mill severe thunderstorm.

A strangeness of peonies

For all the talk of crazy weather, what’s been going on isn’t as odd as you might think. Snowy winter with drifts that last into May? It happens. Wet, cold spring? Totally normal. Massive thunderstorms, both scary and awesome? Seen a few. Killer tornadoes in Massachusetts? Rare, but this is exactly when they strike. But […]

Rain 1 Peony 0

All good peonies must come to an end. Peony week lasted a whole eight days until the rain came. And what rain it was! We had a bit of rain a few days ago, but the peonies held on; it took some serious thunderstorms to shake the flowers down. The weather came in last night, […]

Peony Sunday

The first peony is open in all its magnificence. This is one of the landmarks in the garden year. It’s a grand week, peony week, and it’s a week earlier this year. Interesting. Gee, I wonder why?

Why a bread like a peony?

Today’s bread came out all pretty and plush. It’s as plump as a peony.

The end of flower weeks

The roses are done. The rose hips begun. The irises are done. A pod for each one.

The week of peonies

As the wild roses enter their second week of bloom, the peony bush is joining in. For about a week, it’s covered with huge, lush flowerbombs. And just as they peak, it rains and the waterlogged blossoms drag the whole thing down to the ground and that’s it. A week. After that, the bush reverts […]

The Great Bee Hunt

Here are some of the first pictures I took with that camera I was so excited about Friday. I was almost as excited to see my peonies weather a few days of rain without all the petals falling off. Too bad there’s no room for bees to get into them. That’s okay. I’ve got other […]

Sweetness in the air

These pinks are intensely spicy sweet, like cloves. There’s waves of sweetness coming off this lump of lilac. And the first peony blossom is just opening. (It doesn’t smell like anything.) In the category of weeds I shouldn’t be tolerating…